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The total number of hallmarked items fell 4.6% in November, a decrease of 57,075 pieces when compared with the same month last year.
The latest figures from the four UK assay offices – compiled by the Birmingham Assay Office – found there was a total of 1,196,702 articles hallmarked during the month, down from 1,253,777 in November last year.
However, the high-value category of gold was the only precious metal to record a fall, with the total number of hallmarked items down 10.9%. Both 18-carat and 9-carat gold saw the number of hallmarked articles fall 1.8% and 11%, respectively, while 22-carat fell by 43.5%.
Silver was fairly flat at 1.3% as the number of hallmarked silver items increased by 7,941 – from 591,815 to 599,756.
Meanwhile, platinum and palladium both recorded strong results as the number of hallmarked items increased 8.5% and 20.8%, respectively.
| Month | Month | Variance | % | |||
| Nov-15 | Nov-16 | |||||
| Gold | ||||||
| 999 | 26 | 16 | -10 | -38.5 | ||
| 990 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | ||
| 916 | 43,597 | 24,637 | -18,960 | -43.5 | ||
| 750 | 99,685 | 97,878 | -1,807 | -1.8 | ||
| 585 | 10,429 | 14,783 | 4,354 | 41.7 | ||
| 375 | 475,340 | 423,088 | -52,252 | -11.0 | ||
| 629,077 | 560,402 | -68,675 | -10.9 | |||
| Silver | ||||||
| 999 | 1,433 | 2,596 | 1,163 | 81.2 | ||
| 958 | 1,063 | 1,439 | 376 | 35.4 | ||
| 925 | 589,257 | 595,710 | 6,453 | 1.1 | ||
| 800 | 62 | 11 | -51 | -82.3 | ||
| 591,815 | 599,756 | 7,941 | 1.3 | |||
| Platinum | ||||||
| 999 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 100.0 | ||
| 950 | 25,866 | 28,087 | 2,221 | 8.6 | ||
| 900 | 28 | 7 | -21 | -75.0 | ||
| 850 | 7 | 10 | 3 | 42.9 | ||
| 25,901 | 28,105 | 2,204 | 8.5 | |||
| Palladium | ||||||
| 999 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | ||
| 950 | 6,375 | 7,903 | 1,528 | 24.0 | ||
| 500 | 609 | 536 | -73 | -12.0 | ||
| 6,984 | 8,439 | 1,455 | 20.8 | |||
| Total | 1,253,777 | 1,196,702 | -57,075 | -4.6 | ||
